Family Is
by dustytiger
Summary: A little glimpse of Reid and Abby's life with their adopted daughter. Stand alone, just happies, Abby/Reid cause I love them. Enjoy


Title: Family Is...  
Author: Trista Groulx aka dustytiger  
Rating: T (like the shows to be safe)  
Disclaimer: I'm still super poor and own neither CM nor NCIS, they belong to their creators, network, writers, actors, and actresses who bring the shows to life weekly. I make nothing from this, I just get an escape from what's going on with our sweet Reid.  
Summary: A little glimpse of Reid and Abby's life with their adopted daughter.  
Notes: This is straight up cutsies, with the storyline on CM right now I just needed to put something fuzzy out there. My muse haven't been giving me much lately, but here's a stand alone, I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Abby Scuito watched as her daughter jumped into her father's waiting arms. There were times she still couldn't believe how blessed she was to have the little girl in her life. While most kids would spread their arms out and make air plane noises, their daughter, Andromeda, would put her hands out in front of her and pretend to be a rocket ship when she was pretending to fly.

It was a nice autumn day, and they weren't sure how many more chances they would have to spend an afternoon at the park. Andromeda had on a pair of pink jeans, and a warm purples fleece sweater. Her bright red hair was pulled back into a braid, but somehow it always ended up a mess. She didn't have frizzy hair, it was just wild, which matched her personality.

Sometimes Abby wondered what people thought when they saw her little family together. They wouldn't know that their daughter was adopted, but the toddler looked nothing like her parents, not only because of her wild red hair and freckles, but also her bright green eyes. She had gotten used to people looking at her and Reid early in their relationship but she had found she noticed it more since they had adopted Andromeda, she worried that the little girl might be upset but the looks they got as she grew up.

She wanted to teach her daughter to be proud of who she was, and comfortable in her own skin, so Abby still dressed how she liked that day wearing a pleated red skirt, with warm black tights and a black long sleeved shirt, with a warm tartan vest over top, she also wore large, black rimmed sun hat pushing a stroller made it hard to carry her parasol. He still dressed like an old college professor in corduroy pants and cardigan sweaters with patches in the elbows.

"She's in the Milky Way," Spencer Reid narrated as he ran around the park with Andromeda over his head. "She sees the third planet from the star we call the sun, can see she see who she's looking for?"

Andromeda was laughing so hard she couldn't even respond, she was having so much fun. Abby just smiled, she could watch them like that for hours. Reid was coming straight for her, but zoomed over her head and Andromeda squealed with excitement.

"Let's try that again astronaut Reid is coming in for a landing, oh I think she's got it, this time" Reid continued, finally setting Andromeda down next to her mother.

"Mommy," she giggled then she hiccupped from laughing so much, before giving her a hug.

These were the days they lived for, when neither of them were called in to work, and they could enjoy some time as a family. Reid had reached into the basket under the stroller and took out a water bottle and took a long sip, sitting across from Abby and Andromeda at the picnic table.

"Hello angel," she said, pushing a piece of hair away from the little girl's eyes, no matter what she did her mess of red hair would start to fall out and fall into her eyes.

Andromeda hiccupped again. "That was fun Daddy we can go again?!"

"I think Daddy's arms need a break," Abby answered for him while he was having some water.

"Oh, okay."

"Sorry angel," Reid told her, putting the water bottled down. "I need to catch my breath. Is anyone hungry?"

"Nu-uh, Imma go slide," she giggled running off, still hiccupping.

"She needs to stop growing," sighed Abby, moving to sit next to him and resting her head on Reid's shoulder as they watched her run off toward the slide.

"I can't believe she's going to be two in a week." Reid agreed.

"To be honest there's times I'm still amazed we were able to adopt her."

Reid nodded, thinking back to that day nearly two years ago when they were walking down the street holding hands, not far from the park they were now in. In the past few weeks their work schedules had made it nearly impossible to see each other. As much as they understood the importance of each of their jobs it was nice to finally have some time to themselves, on a beautiful but crisp autumn day.

"I think I heard something over there," Reid commented.

"Spencer," she sighed. "Can't we just enjoy some time together?"

"I can't ignore it Abby. It's likely nothing it'll just take a moment."

She nodded and watched him as he went down the small alley. It wasn't that she didn't care about what the noise was but she just wanted to spend an afternoon with her husband, even if it was selfish. She knew what she had agreed to when they were married, but this was supposed to be their time together. She didn't want him to go find anything that might turn into work on a rare day off.

A part of him wanted to let it go, but that noise, there was something about it he couldn't quite put his finger on, he couldn't ignore it. When he got part way down the alley he was shocked to see what was in front of him. How could anyone do that? A tiny baby was lying there wearing only thin pajamas and socks. There wasn't even a blanket on the ground to keep her warm. He picked the baby up and went back toward Abby.

"Abby!" he exclaimed. "Call 911!"

Abby was already on her phone when she saw him coming out. She was shocked to see him holding a baby. She was very relieved he hadn't listened to her about ignoring the sound. She couldn't believe that he had found a baby, she was tiny she couldn't be more than a few days old.

"Can I have your scarf?" he asked.

She took the scarf off and watched as he swaddled the baby with it and then she began to tell the dispatcher what was going on. She couldn't believe that the sound they'd heard had turned out to be a baby. Her mind was already racing wondering what kind of person would leave a baby in an alley when there were so many other places to surrender one.

Thankfully it took almost no time for an ambulance to arrive on the scene and the baby was soon on her way to the hospital, with the couple not far behind, wanting to know that she would be all right, they had already discussed adoption and wondered if maybe there was a reason they'd found her. At the very least they wanted to be sure she would be all right.

Abby watched the little girl as she played, although she could spend hours playing with her cousins she could also have just as much fun on her own. They'd talked about adopting again, but they were also happy with the family they had. Abby thought that if they were meant to have another child he or she would come into their lives like Andromeda had.

"All right, Andie," Abby said going over to the slide. "One more then you need to have something to eat."

She nodded and climbed up the ladder again, when she got to the bottom she went over to the picnic table where Reid was putting out the food he'd packed for them. Abby took some hand sanitizer out and they each used some to clean their hands a little before they began to eat

Abby smiled as she watched Reid take out their lunch, he had packed hummus with carrots and celery, fish crackers, chocolate chip cookies, watermelon, and apple grape juice boxes, all of Andromeda's favourites.

"The cookies are for desert," Reid told the little girl, taking them and doing a magic trick to make them disappear.

Andromeda laughed. "Can I learn magic, Daddy?" she asked.

"I think you're almost ready to start learning. The first thing you need to learn is that a magician keeps his or her tricks secret, so magicians only teach other magicians tricks."

"I wanna be a real magician!"

"Okay, angel I'll teach you your first trick after your birthday."

"Yay! Mommy Imma be a magician!"

"I bet you're going to be great. Now eat up, or none of us will ever get cookies," Abby told her.

They continued to eat their lunch together, and when they were done Andromeda went back toward the play structure. Abby moved to sit next Reid again, and he wrapped his arm around her as they watched her play. They cherished these moments they had. Sometimes they worried they didn't get enough of them but they had found more balance since they had adopted Andromeda.

"This is nice," she sighed.

"It sure is," he agreed. "I never thought I'd find this."

"Me either, but I'm glad we did."

She still remembered talking with the case worker at the hospital, after that first meeting she was sure that they wouldn't even be considered as candidates to adopt. She thought she didn't want kids, until she was told she couldn't, then she wondered if she might make a good mother. It wasn't until she'd met Reid that she decided she could be a parent if he was her ally, but she was almost certain that was going to slip away.

They had almost no family between them, with Diana being sick and her only having her brothers, who she loved dearly but saw less and less she didn't blame them for being apprehensive about their adoption application and that didn't address the time they both spent at work. They had talked about that when they had started the process but talking about what they would do was different than proving to a real person that they could make time for both their jobs and their potential family.

They had wanted to stay by the baby's side at the hospital while she was there, she hadn't suffered any damage from being outside. Although it wasn't warm out, she hadn't been out long enough to develop hypothermia, she hadn't been in the sun either, so she hadn't gotten a sunburn. The doctors mostly wanted to monitor her, and they also didn't know where she would be released and if the couple wanted the release to be to them there were things they needed to get done at home.

They had moved into a townhouse after they were married. In the time it had taken them to file the paperwork and spend some time with Andromeda at the hospital Morgan had gone in and not only set up the nursery but had also baby proofed the rest of the house as well. When they'd gotten in they thought they were going to have a lot of work to do to get ready for the visit from the social worker but it was mostly done for them. They just needed to wash and organize everything they'd been given.

Having so many people supporting them had shown that although they might not look like they had a lot of family, they had more family than most people had. Andromeda would have three grandfathers, many aunts and uncles, and she even had cousins to grow up with. Their family wasn't traditional but they supported each other, and that's what mattered and it had been clear very quickly they would have what they would need in order to raise a child.

Abby felt Reid move, and looked at the time, amazed it had gotten so late in the day. He got up and went to where she was playing.

"All right angel," Reid called. "I think it's time to go."

She yawned. "No," she said.

"I think they could see your tonsils from the space station."

She giggled, letting him pick her up, he didn't run around with her as long as before but he did go around the park a little before putting her into her stroller. He had hardly gotten her strapped in when the toddler's eyes slipped shut.

"This was perfect," Abby told him as they began to walk home.

"It was," he agreed. "She's already out." He pulled a blanket over her legs and made sure that her stuffed monster toy was tucked firmly next to the toddler where it couldn't fall out, she wouldn't settle without it.

"I'm not surprised. Do you want to push her?"

"Go ahead," he assured her.

"Do you ever think about how we're going to tell her how we found her?" she asked as she pushed the stroller down the sidewalk.

"I think we'll find the words as she asks us questions. In a perfect world her birth mother would have left her somewhere warm, but we don't know her reasons, for leaving her where she did; the important thing is we found her, and we got to be her mom and dad."

"I know you're right, I just don't want her to feel like she didn't matter."

"I hope she never feels that way. If she didn't matter we wouldn't have helped her, we wouldn't have adopted her, and she matters; she always mattered. Garcia says that we were meant to become her mom and dad, and I think she'll always feel that."

"Spencer," she whispered, stopping for a moment and kissed him softly.

She knew he was right. Andromeda would never feel like she wasn't wanted. She still remembered how anxious they were while they were waiting for the adoption to be finalized. At first they had to wait to see if someone came forward to report her missing, which hadn't happened, during that time they were her foster parents. It took months for the adoption to be official.

She still remembered the day she found out, but Reid had been away on a case, it was a particularly brutal one, but she didn't want him to find out over the phone. She had asked Garcia to let her know when the team would be landing and went to the air strip to meet him. When she got there Andromeda had been sleeping so she put her in her sling and waited for them.

When he saw her he seemed surprised, but also happy. He went over and hugged her, carefully, smiling when he saw the baby asleep in her sling.

"She's ours," Abby whispered.

"Really?" he asked.

"They can't take her." She wiped away a tear from his cheek. "I found out two days ago."

"I'm glad you waited."

"You needed this."

"I did," he agreed.

Andromeda began to fuss a little, and Abby whispered."She must know that Daddy's near. Isn't that right Andie?" she asked putting the baby in his arms.

"Hello angel, I missed you," he told her, kissing her cheek as the baby cooed softly.

It was then that Reid finally understood how the other parents on the team did it. He had always wondered, and had asked them many times how they were able to keep going when there was a rough case and they would talk about balance. Now he understood what that meant. The case had been one of the hardest he'd worked, but the joy he felt hearing the good news was the balance. It was now one of the happiest moments of his life. It finally made sense as he held his daughter.

Abby moved in closer to him, smiling. She'd always wanted a daughter, when they first talked about adoption he had said he would be happy with any baby, but she had always hoped they'd get a daughter. She wanted to see him have that special connection a father had with his daughter. She had seen it the moment he had come out of that ally holding her, and she had prayed every day that this would happen, and it had.

"How do you feel about lasagna tonight?" Reid asked her.

"You think Andromeda will eat that?" she asked.

"She'll eat anything as long as it has Rossi's sauce."

"Okay, you're right and knowing Rossi there's so much cheese she'll never know there's vegetables in there."

"True."

"Mommy," they heard a little voice say.

"Well good morning angel," she said smiling, going over to help her out of the stroller.

"It no morning," Andromeda laughed.

"You still just woke up, won't don't you put Monz in your room and get a puzzle to work on until dinner?"

"Okay!"

She ran into her room with her toy and came out with one of her puzzles. Reid came and joined them after he had put the lasagna in the oven. The three of them worked on the puzzle until dinner was ready. They enjoyed the meal together, just taking in the family time. The couple always cherished the time they got as a family because of their jobs.

When everything was all cleaned up they started Andromeda's bedtime routine, it wasn't that the toddler would stall because he father was home, if anything she rushed through the mundane parts, taking a bath, brushing her hair, getting her pajamas on. The reason they started bed time early was that Reid couldn't tell her he couldn't read her another book. Although he would always call to read to her, or tell her a story at bed time, Andromeda knew, at least in the abstract, that he needed to go back to work, but there was no need for that when he was home with them, they had all the time in the world to read, and she would take advantage of that.

From the moment he'd picked her up that first time the little girl had had him wrapped around her little finger, he would do anything to make her happy. He didn't let her get away with poor behaviour but he also didn't see the harm in spoiling her a little bit. He could see no harm in spending two hours reading to her before she fell asleep, and neither could Abby. They had found something good together, and adopting Andromeda had only completed that.

Abby went into Andromeda's room, smiling at what she saw. There were books strewn about the bed and the two of them had fallen asleep. She took a picture before she quietly picked up the books, placing them on the side table, and finally pulling the blanket up over them. Andromeda still didn't like sleeping with the lights off, so she left it on.

Things were perfect, if the universe gave her another blessing she would gladly take it, but she didn't need anything more, she had everything she never thought she wanted. Until she'd met Reid at a lecture she didn't think she wanted to settle down and get married, but there was something unique about him, and he always said he had found something intriguing about her and somehow they had made it work together. They were happy.

The End

Notes: So that's that, I'm glad my muse gave me a little something to share during this rough time for Reid fans. I'm not gonna lie the past season of both shows prob won't be part of my future fics, and hopefully I will get writing again soon. Let me know what you think kids hugz and love!


End file.
